Community UVA petition calls for university to rollback decision to hire recent White House Legislative Director Marc Short

Charlottesville, VA—University of Virginia Young Americans for Freedom—UVA YAF—stands with Marc Short. We are extremely disappointed with the closemindedness and intolerance of leftists at UVA, including staff, professors, and administrators.

On Thursday, several petitions on change.org spread throughout the UVA community urging the university to reverse its decision to hire recent White House Legislative Director Marc Short. A few weeks ago, Short announced his July 20 departure from the White House, noting he had accepted the position of senior fellow at the school’s Miller Center—a nonpartisan center for study of the Presidency. He will also be teaching at UVA’s business school (of which he is an alumnus).

The University of Virginia is a community that prides itself on diversity, inclusion, and openness. This double standard regarding conservative viewpoints and conservative leaders is astonishing and very apparent.

I suspect that many students at UVA would like to hear from a diversity of perspectives and experiences. Indeed, that was a benefit I appreciated when I was a freedom-loving student formulating my understanding of various subjects.

Students in the University of Virginia School of Business will be fortunate to learn from Marc Short. I know Marc as a courteous, knowledgeable and thoughtful person who will impart his valuable experiences and wisdom to his students and the Miller Centers scholarly research. A few loud, intolerant people won’t thwart this wise decision by Mr. Jefferson’s university to recruit respected Marc Short.

The sentiment that Marc Short should be run out of the UVA community is insulting to the conservative students of UVA YAF as well as those students who are too afraid to speak out for fear of enduring similar attacks from the Left.

Administrators and faculty members who have signed this petition are making a statement that conservative ideas and perspectives are not welcome in the UVA community.

Members of Young Americans for Freedom at UVA—the chapter affiliate of Young America’s Foundation—are not going to stand for such intolerance, which fosters animosity and hate.

UVA YAF Chairman Kevin McMahon stated,

It is clear there are some members of the UVA community that have no interest in intellectual diversity. Marc Short is a stand-up man, a patriot, and a fantastic conservative leader.

Having previously served in the White House, as a senior Capitol Hill staffer, and executive director of Young America’s Foundation, Marc Short represents the conservative principles and ideas of the students of UVA Young Americans for Freedom, who are also students of the University of Virginia. We look forward to welcoming Marc Short and his ideas on UVA grounds.

UVA YAF calls on President Sullivan and President-Elect Ryan to support intellectual diversity on campus, starting by publicly supporting their decision to hire Marc Short.

The bias at UVA is evident, and UVA YAF is no stranger to leftist hostility and obstruction.

It is our hope that UVA will become a community more open to conservative ideas, and it is our mission to pursue the principles of limited government, individual liberty, strong national defense, free markets, and traditional values.

For further information or to request an interview contact YAF Spokesman Spencer Brown via email (sbrown@yaf.org) or phone (800-872-1776).